Difficult trail runs and the mental aspect of racing
Here’s a great lead paragraph from Michael Cook’s blog on his Way Too Cool 50k race. Click on the link or image to the left for the full story. Thought is was worth sharing.
I can say very little about this race, the 2010 Way Too Cool 50K. But let me say a few things. Part of the joy of racing is the anticipation, the planning, the goal setting, the “I’m going to run…”. The other joy is the memory, the looking back, the reflection. I think sometimes there is very little joy in the moment. Read the Romantic poets like Keats and you hear of the beauty in joy AND pain, how sometimes the two cannot be separated. How is it that when running and the body hurts, we convince ourselves there’s no other place we’d rather be at that moment? The battle that rages within, the civil war between mind and body can be the determining factor, perhaps even more than the hours of physical training logged before the race. So much of the race takes place in the mind.
It’s so interesting to hear elite athletes like Michael and Leah Thorvilson talk so much about the mental aspects of running. It’s not how to keep from hurting in the midst of a race, it’s all about what you choose to do when it hurts.





